Wolf Melhart

Rare emerald, enamel and seed pearl early pre-balance spring watch and chain, circa 1670

VAT applies to hammer price and buyer's premium

Estimate

45,000 - 70,000 CHF

Lot Details

Description

The lid collet-set with step-cut emeralds within a surround of foliate design embellished with seed pearls and white enamel beads, opening to reveal a round dial with Roman numerals enhanced with pink enamel, the case decorated with floral and foliate motifs in relief applied with pink, white and green enamel, the bail collet-set with step-cut and triangular emeralds and seed pearls, to a fancy-link chain, length approximately 970mm, pre-hairspring movement, signed Wolf Melhart Landshuett, six seed pearls and a number of enamel beads deficient, fitted case.

Therese of Sachsen-Hildburghausen, Queen of Bavaria (1792-1854)

Cf.: Clare Vincent and Jan Hendrick Leopold with Elizabeth Sullivan, European Clocks and Watches in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2015, pg. 82-85, for a similar gem set watch in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The town of Landshut gifted this early watch with chain to Therese of Sachsen-Hildburghausen, Queen of Bavaria when she first came to Bavaria, presumably as a bride in 1810. By repute the watch once belonged to one Theodolinde of Bavaria, likewise born a Princess of Saxony, however, no historical figure of this name can be identified within the correct time period.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York houses a similar jewelled early pre-balance spring watch with an enamelled case of floral design set with rubies. The watch case was likewise made by an anonymous South-German goldsmith between 1660 and 1680. The mechanism of the museum's example is signed by Nicolaus Rugendas, a member of a well-regarded family of clockmakers based in Augsburg. The Rugendas watch was bequeathed to the museum by J. Pierpont Morgan, who had acquired it from the collection of Baroness Alphonse de Rothschild (1837-1911).